Finlay Wilson

Remember when was a thing?
Today marks 14 years since I attended my first session with Ana Forrest, 12 years since certification with Forrest Yoga (I was already teaching Ashtanga and Hatha classes for a good few years at this point).
I was familiar in my own practice with the rigours of a set sequence and had begun dabbling in variations as my community grew. But, the needs of my body were changing, I was in a dark place.
I’ve explained it before, my practice was almost a moment for self flagellation, I had weaponised the teaching of the sutras to punish my body and to try to calm the howls of my own misery. My life force was a pilot light.
When I did my first Forrest session, I was shaking. I was asked to feel. The poses weren’t hard, nothing I couldn’t handle. But I was being asked to track sensation. To track subtle shifts. And to track how I felt about my own body.
It blew me open.
It felt like the moment in the Wizard of Oz when it goes technicolour (it’s pride month after all).
The tools I’ve learned help me navigate my own issues (issues I had since before I started yoga twenty years ago), both physical and mental.
It’s my hope that rather than seeing that little pilot light, that they see a swirling and boiling bonfire of energy.
🔥🌈🎉💅🏻